“I am telling them now – it may be the last minute – I’m telling them stop it,” Olmert said in a rare interview with the Arabic-language satellite channel Al Arabiya. “We are stronger.”

But Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza, said it would continue the attacks it resumed last week as an act of “self-defense.”

“Israel’s threats don’t scare us,” spokesman Mushir al-Masri said.

Egypt said it was desperately trying to restore the truce. But an authoritative Arab newspaper said Egypt told Israel it wouldn’t object to a limited invasion of Gaza as a way of punishing Hamas’ hardliners.

Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, accused Hamas of acting arrogantly toward Egypt and said there was no choice but “to educate the Hamas leadership,” the newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, said.

Hamas is blamed for launching about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the Gaza-Israeli border in the last two days.

One of the mortar shells landed at a border crossing just as a group of Palestinian Christians was going through on its way to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas, the Israeli military said.

The mood in Israel has become steadily more militant, and even left-leaning politicians have said the truce had served only to make Hamas stronger.

Israeli newspapers said the military was expected to launch airstrikes against rocket launchers just inside the Gaza border, followed by a land invasion.

“Whoever harms the citizens and soldiers of Israel will pay a heavy price,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday.

Israel’s military chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, warned of a huge offensive.

Israel “will need to use all its force in order to damage terror infrastructure and create a different and safe reality in the Gaza vicinity,” he said.

But Hamas’ al-Masri said, “We’re not afraid of assassinations and invasions, and we are prepared to sacrifice our leaders.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni flew to Cairo yesterday for an emergency summit at the request of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Livni said, “I didn’t come here to get permission for a military operation.”

“Enough is enough,” she said later.

Complicating the crisis is the Israeli election set for Feb. 10. Both Barak and Livni are running to replace Olmert as prime minister and are under heavy pressure to act against Hamas. With Post Wire Services